Land Development : A Fundamental of Sustainable Agriculture

Land Resources in Thailand

Land Use Pattern and Land Suitability in Thailand
    There are 4 main problems of land resources:
  1. Misused of Land, i.e., residential and industrial construction on agricultural land, deforestation and encroachment into the watershed conserved area, cultivation of plants that are not suitable to land. The total area of misused land is amounted to 30 million rai.

     

  2. The results of land mismanagement
    are as the following:

    2.1 Soil erosion loss of nutrients, minerals and organic matter. There are approximately 107 million rai or 33% of the whole country accounted to this problem alone.

    2.2 Low organic matters. This problem is commonly found covering as high as 191 millon rai or 59.5 % of the total area in the country.

  3. Topology and environment : Examples of this type of problem are as follows:
    3.1 Tung Kula Rong Hai: this is the classic example of severe soil problem contributed both from natural soil condition, topology and environment. About 2.1 million rai of land is unfertile resulted from its salinity. Moreover, it is flooded in the rainy season but drought cover the whole area in the dry season.

    3.2 Coastal land area: A total of 10 million rai is not fully productive. The problem is mainly contribute from the characteristic of soil itself as well as the natural environment of that area.

    3.3 Peat swamp: The area is severely flooded all year round and contains too much organic matters.

    3.4 Old mining soil: It is mainly gravel soil, fertility is too low while its structure is not suitable for cultivation.

  4. Problem Soils : natural condition of soil

    4.1 Acid soil: In the central low land region alone there are 7 provinces facing this problem. The area of severely acid to moderately acid soil is 2.3 million rai with the average yield of rice at 15 tung/rai.

    4.2 Saline soil: In the northeastern part of Thailand, this type of soil is scattered all over. The total area ranging from severe, moderate, to low salinity is amounted to 17.8 million rai or 16.73% of the northeastern land area.

    4.3 Saline and acid soil: In the south there are as much as 2.5 million rai of saline soil and 1 million rai of acid soil. Thirty percent of the saline soil and almost one hundred percent of these acid soils are either used as paddy field or left unused. The average yield from this kind of soil is amounted to only 10-20 tung/rai.


     Specific Problem Soils

     

    Problem Soils Area (rai)
    1. Salt Affected Soils 21,718,790
    1.1 Coastal Saline Soils 3,611,580
    1.1.1 Coastal Saline Soils, Potentially Acid 2,885,090
    1.1.2 Coastal Saline Soils, Non-potentially Acid 726,490
    1.2 Inland Saline/Sodic Soils 18,107,210
    1.2.1 extream saline soil 1,771,220
    1.2.2 moderate saline soil 3,690,250
    1.2.3 low saline soil 12,645,740
    2. Sandy Soil 7,127,500
    2.1 extream sandy soil, no organic stratum 6,613,530
    2.2 extream sandy soil with organic stratum 513,970
    3. Acid Sulphate Soil 5,326,790
    4. Organic Soil 505,180
    5. Shallow Soil 51,291,150
    5.1 Laterrite soil and conglomerate soil 31,796,210
    5.2 Soil with stone 17,327,600
    5.3 Soil with calcium bi carbonate 2,167,340
    6. Slope Complex 96,158,200
    Total 182,127,610